more of the garden set

remember this set is basically “a castle gardener has a secret spot that he takes the leftover plants from the formal castle grounds and has created his own little oasis”

ok…back to building…the styrofoam work is done, and all of that is covered is plaster of paris and thinset mortar…now to paint it all flat black to help tie it all together…any part is not covered up later will just show up as a black shadow, that is why we start with a black base…

This is the pool area with a rock wall on the front. The brown is sawdust I threw by the handfulls into the wet paint for a bit of texture.

Below is the first drybrushing with a dark gray over the black. Use a very dry brush for this and lightly brush across the surface, leaving some dark areas untouched.

This photo shows the work after 2 or 3 coats of progressively lighter shades of gray drybrushed on.

This is the close up texture. It really starts to look like real rock now.

Apply some grass/landscape mixture by applying some glue/water/detergent mix onto the flat surfaces and sprinkling the grass on, or by sprinkling the grass and then dribbling drops of glue on top of it. You can also put your glue mixture in a spray bottle and spray it on. Again the glue mixture is 25% white glue, 75% water, and a couple of drops of dish detergent. The detergent breaks down the surface tension on the water so it soaks in and doesn’t run all over the place.

This closeup shows the rock face with some grass and gravel on it.

Try to put some glue/grass on all surfaces that it would really grow in nature.

Glue some tiny pieces of silk flowers from the hobby store/Walmart/fish store etc to match your style or desired look.

This is the pool area. I used two part casting resin and some blue paint (which did not mix well at all into the resin, I should have used an oil based paint maybe or a dye)….And in all of my excitement of making the pool, I didn’t notice it had some old tiedown holes in the bottom so half of my pool dripped out onto my table saw top while I wasn’t looking. Oooooppppsss.

The water fall looking thing is a “water effects” from the train hobby store, it will dry a lot clearer. It just spreads on like a thick cream and then dries to look like water. My resin might have worked even better.

Keep adding bits of plants, and work out your path ways.

To reach the second level of the garden I built a set of wooden stairs. It is scrap pieces of wood, some dowel, and some hot melt glue. It goes up three steps and then forms a landing, and then goes up the last two steps. I actually built another one first but it was too narrow for my puppet. These photos show it unpainted. I have to distress it and age it before glueing into the set. These photos are taken inside on my other puppet set where Iam animating the woolly monster. It was already dark outside when I started painting them so I took them inside.

So, go ahead, make a mess (just watch where your resin lands), and have some fun.

Seamus, All of my stryofoam I use I find for free. Everything that someone buys in a large box comes in styrofoam like stereo parts, ceiling fans, stuff like that. A lot of my styrofoam is found in the trash. You might even ask around some stores. They do sell it in nice flat sheets in the hardware store as building insulation but so far all of mine has been free.
There are several ways to cut it. A razor knife will work, a handsaw, a sheetrock saw, a bandsaw, or the professionals use a hot wire cutter. Google foam cutter. Some are cheap ($15) in the craft stores and use batteries. You can also find ones that use electricity.